Conventional driver assistance systems often offer little or very insufficient recognition of meteorological phenomena during a drive of the vehicle, such as the occurrence of fog or smoke ahead of the vehicle. In particular during the night or when it is dark, when headlights are turned on during the drive of the vehicle, this may result in dangerous driving situations, e.g., when the lighting is set too high when driving into a fog bank and thus the driver is blinded by the strong reflection of the light from the aerosol droplets which form the fog.